Trumbull engineer's office to handle Orangeville road maintenance

Staff report

WARREN

The village of Orangeville has become the second Trumbull County community to enter into an agreement with the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office to allow the county engineer’s office to take over its road maintenance.

Trumbull County commissioners approved the agreement earlier this week with the community in northeast Hartford Township with a population of 197.

In July 2012, commissioners approved the first such agreement, with Farmington Township.

The two agreements are possible because of a 2011 change in Ohio law that allows a county engineer to maintain a township’s or village’s roads during regular business hours Monday through Friday.

Previously, the engineer’s office could only provide services such as road maintenance and snowplowing on weekends at overtime rates, which caused the service to be too expensive to be of much use, said Randy Smith, county engineer.

In the case of Farmington Township, Smith said his office was larger than the township’s road department and had better equipment, so it was able to provide a better level of service for about the same cost the township was paying to two employees working 32 hours per week.

Farmington Township was able to abolish its road department because of the agreement.